Arrays and Null inputs

I made the code look lke one below but it gives me the following error

Your code caused an Exception:
java.lang.NullPointerException
Comments:
The code should handle the possibility that the input array is null.

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print?

Code:

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01        class StudentSubmission {
02            int indexOfLargestNumber(int[ ] inputNumbers) {
03                int startIndex =0;
04                int max = inputNumbers[startIndex];
05                int indexOfMax = startIndex;
06               
07                for (int index = startIndex + 1; index< inputNumbers.length; index++)
08                {
09                                  if  (inputNumbers ==null|| inputNumbers.length == 0)
10                            {
11                                    indexOfMax = -1;
12                          return indexOfMax;
13                   
14                    }
15                                else
16                  {
17                  for ( index = startIndex + 1; index< inputNumbers.length; index++)
18                  {
19                      if (inputNumbers[index]>max)
20                            {
21                              max = inputNumbers[index];
22                            indexOfMax = index;
23                          }
24                 
25                  }
26               
27                }
28               
29                }
30                return indexOfMax;
31            }
32        }

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Below is the whole question

This method takes an array of numbers as input and returns the index of the largest number in that array. If the largest number appears multiple times, ties are settled by returning the index of its first appearance. For instance, given [4, 2, 7, 1, 7, 3] as input, the method returns 2 (the index of the first appearance of 7 in the array).

The following is the method prototype for the method:
int indexOfLargestNumber(int[ ] inputNumbers)

If inputNumbers is null or empty, the method should return -1 to indicate an error condition.

Please help I am really struggling here

Quote:

---

t gives me the following error

Your code caused an Exception:
java.lang.NullPointerException

---

Please copy and paste the full contents of the error message here. One of the important items in the message is the line number of the source where the error occurred.

The java.lang.NullPointerException is caused when u try to access the first element of the empty array in line 04.
My suggestion would be to check for null array in the beg. of the function rather in the middle.
The alterred code:

Code:

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int indexOfLargestNumber(int[] inputNumbers) {
        int indexOfMax;
        if (inputNumbers != null & inputNumbers.length != 0) {
            int startIndex = 0;
            int max = inputNumbers[startIndex];
            indexOfMax = startIndex;

            for (int index = startIndex + 1; index < inputNumbers.length; index++) {
                for (index = startIndex + 1; index < inputNumbers.length; index++) {
                    if (inputNumbers[index] > max) {
                        max = inputNumbers[index];
                        indexOfMax = index;
                    }
                }
            }
        } else {
            indexOfMax = -1;
        }
        return indexOfMax;
    }

---

Hope this Helps :)

Why did you start a new thread?
http://www.java-forums.org/new-java/...ty-inputs.html

@OP, please stick with a one thread. Don't post the same question multiple times.